Yakuza 5 built using new game engine, has five main characters

PlayStation 3 exclusive Yakuza 5 features five main characters and is set in five cities: Sapporo, Tokyo, Nagoya, Osaka and Fukuoka.

The five main characters are Kazuma Kiryu, Taiga Saejima, Shun Akiyama, Haruka and Tatsuo Shinada, according to Japanese magazine Famitsu (via Andriasang). All five are playable.

Shinada, a former baseball player, is the newcomer. He was slapped with a life ban for gambling, but apparently he's innocent. And in debt.

Kiryu is working as a taxi driver in Fukuoka. Soejima is doing time behind bars. Akiyama is in Osaka on business. Haruka left Okinama to become an idol, and is living on her own in Osaka. It seems her talent agency has some nefarious plan for her. The story connects directly with Yakuza 4.

Designer Toshihiro Nagoshi said the game uses a new engine, which means zombie spin-off Yakuza of the End marks the end of the engine that served the series so well. Because of this, Yakuza 5 is considered a "New Yakuza", with better controls, and a bigger and better script.

Yakuza 5 is 70 per cent complete. It's out in Japan on PlayStation 3 in December.